THE Wildlife Trust is asking people in the Warrington area to record hedgehog sightings to ‘help a hog’ this autumn.
Hedgehog populations have been declining in the UK, but gardens could provide a life-saving refuge.
Rural populations of hedgehogs have declined by 30-75 per cent in different areas of the countryside due to building developments. However, the urban hedgehog population is showing promising signs of stabilising.
Lydia German, senior communications officer at Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: “By recording where you have (or even where you haven’t) seen a hedgehog, you can help us to build up a fuller picture of how the population is faring across our region.
“If you haven’t seen a hedgehog so far this year where you would usually see one in previous years, we class this as a hedgehog ‘not-spot’ and it is just as informative to track their behaviours and habitat changes as reported ‘hot spots’.”
The Trust received 740 responses in total last year, reporting sightings of 1,147 hedgehogs. The sighting numbers overall were down seven per cent compared to last year, which was down even further compared to 2022 numbers (33 per cent).
With gardens becoming increasingly more important as habitats for hedgehogs in the UK as building developments progress, gathering this information allows the Trust to understand where conservation work needs to be targeted, and raise awareness of what we can all do to aid their population recovery.
This information will be passed onto local environmental records centres, allowing them to build up both a regional and national picture of how these beloved garden visitors are doing.
The Trust is also raising awareness of how to help the species in their free ‘Help a Hog’ guide, with information on how to make a ‘hedgehog highway’, encourage insects as a food source, create a hedgehog home and more.
You can ‘help a hog’ and record sightings or absences at: https://www.lancswt.org.uk/hedgehog-hotspots
